


a lifetime

by coffeeclaires



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: 2x10, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, episode s2e10, guilty pleasure, not even sorry, this is just
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-08-09 21:42:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20124298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeeclaires/pseuds/coffeeclaires
Summary: After Valentine destroys life as they know it, Magnus and Alec manage to find comfort in the fact that they're both still standing.





	a lifetime

**Author's Note:**

> hello all! this is my first time posting on AO3! this fic takes place between 2x10 and 2x11. hope you like it! please feel free to leave comments or constructive criticism. <3

The midday sunlight seeping in through Magnus’ bedroom window was just bright enough to wake the sleepy warlock.

It was a rarity for him to be allowed to sleep this late-judging by the sun’s position in the sky, he guessed it was around 11-but given the events that had recently taken place, he supposed it was okay to take a break.

His lenience on his duties may or may not have also been affected by the certain Shadowhunter in his bed.

Alec was certainly awake, as Magnus could tell by the lack of his usual deep and languid breathing, (in addition to the fact that Magnus had recently taken to tracking his boyfriend’s sleep patterns with his magic, which was totally not creepy or overprotective,) but Magnus was thankful that he had decided to stay rather than rush back to the Institute.

Coming home the night before, they had both been utterly exhausted.

Over a hundred Downworlders and Shadowhunters died because of Valentine’s attack and it had taken hours to identify and document all the deaths. And of course, during this whole fiasco Magnus and Alec were unaware of whether the other was even alive, so Alec was left to help bury downworlders, while Magnus paced in Catarina’s living room until his friend finally let him portal back to the Institute. Magnus had previously tried to gently coax Madzie into telling him anything she knew about Valentine’s plan that could lend insight into what could possibly be going on on Alec’s end, but she just said that she felt sorry for hurting her “tall friend who liked her gills.” (This obviously did nothing to calm Magnus’ anxiety.)

So, yes. Considering the fact that he and Alec had been awake and active for about 36 hours or so, he figured they should be able to rest for a while.

The faint rise and fall of Alec’s chest against his back helped him block out the horrible memory that was yesterday. It may have easily made his top ten in his list of terrible days, which was saying something as he had witnessed over 400 years of both mundane and Shadow world catastrophes, but those 3 little words had prevented that from happening.  
Alec told Magnus that he loved him.

He smiled.

Just the thought of it made Magnus shiver in excitement. He had denied himself, deprived himself of any real affection for _so long._

Magnus twisted around to meet Alec’s open eyes and pecked him on the cheek. “Good morning, Alexander. I love you.”

Alec simultaneously blushed and beamed at him before kissing him softly. “‘Morning. I love you, too. Did you want to get up?”

“No,” Magnus replied. “I just want to lie here with you for a while.”

He had no idea how long they stayed there in each other’s arms, Alec tracing lazy patterns on his shoulder. This was one of his favorite stages of new relationships; casual intimacy, he felt, was becoming increasingly underrated, overshadowed by the passionate, heat-of-the-moment flings that so many people sought after.

Alec’s index finger continued to drag slowly across his skin, but it was now curiously...particular? The simple swirls had turned into an intricate shape: a curve combined with jagged edges in the center. It definitely wasn’t a mistake; Alec kept repeating the same symbol over and over again, with hands so practiced that he didn’t seem to even realize what he was doing.

He _loved_ Alec’s hands. He’d watched them draw his bow and arrow, handle a seraph blade with expertise, and use his stele to outline runes on his (extremely attractive) body.

Runes…

Oh. Magnus supposed that made sense. His boyfriend had been applying runes for over a decade. It was probably just something his hands did to keep busy in the rare moments when he wasn’t _actually_ busy. The only problem was that Magnus couldn’t figure out which rune it was, and he knew his runes. He’d seen hundreds, maybe thousands of Shadowhunters put them on, even Alec’s ancestors, as strange as that was. He tried to concentrate on the design that Alec’s finger made, creating an image in his head.

A crescent with a squiggle in the middle. Courage in combat? Flexibility? Endur-

It couldn’t be.

Holy shit.

Holy _shit._

Alec was drawing the Wedded Union rune.

On Magnus.

It wasn’t that Magnus necessarily had a problem with Alec indirectly expressing his fondness; in fact, he’d been longing for the day Alec finally felt comfortable with himself and his sexuality. And it most definitely was not that Magnus didn’t return the feelings for Alec. He’d fell for him much faster than he thought he would. Magnus loved his boyfriend, but...damn.

No one, in all his years of existence, had ever wanted to marry him.

And the first person who expressed any interest, even if he didn’t realize it, was a _Shadowhunter._ Magnus had grown out of his self-loathing for what he was,_ is,_ a long time ago, but he still struggled to wrap his mind around it. This half-angelic miracle of a person loved Magnus, his polar opposite, a half-demon. Alec hadn’t ever called him any of the slurs Magnus was afraid he might have picked up from his parents. He hadn’t flinched when the glamour dropped from Magnus’ eyes. He always spoke to him with respect and kindness instead of the coldness so many people had shown him in the past. And the way he looked at him...

He mentally shook his head. He was probably reading into this too much. Alec was, what, 22? He still had plenty of time to think about all of that, right?

_‘Right,’_ said a voice in the back of his head. _‘As long as he actually survives this war. Or, for that matter, any day of his life when he’s doing anything but laying around in bed with you.’_

The voice reminded him of the blatant cruelty the Shadow world so often displayed. Warlock children were consistently abandoned by their mortal parent, seelies felt the need to close themselves off for fear of others (Nephilim) taking advantage of their inability to lie, and vampires and werewolves were called monsters on a daily basis. Shadowhunters were brought up with weapons and bruises and were lucky to live to see the age of 50. Alec might be considered middle aged at this point.

_‘Shadowhunters marry young, have kids young, and then die young...when they find someone, it’s for life.’_

For life.

It was both a foreign and beautiful concept in Magnus’ head, like hearing someone speak a language you didn’t understand. He could make out the general idea, but he knew there was a whole lot he wasn’t getting. He was used to observing those kinds of relationships rather than being a part of one. He always thought of them as some sort of object in a museum, something he didn’t have the permission or the ability to touch.

No one had ever wanted to marry him before.

No one had ever wanted to spend the rest of their life with him before.

He looked up into Alec’s features and cupped his face. The younger man leaned into his palm and stared into Magnus’ glowing cat eyes.

_‘Could this truly be it?’_ Magnus asked himself. After Camille he assumed there would be no one else. He’d shielded himself from any potential heartache or attachment for so long that he had begun to believe that he would spend the rest of his days in a similar manner. But now…

He thought back to the words he told Alec months ago.

_‘You’ve unlocked something in me.’_

He pressed his lips to Alec’s and felt sparks travel all throughout his body, each like a mini supernova.

A lifetime like this sounded perfect.


End file.
